Electrical connectors are used extensively on circuit packs located in tight spaces on digital shelves. Moreover, the trend in electronic packaging is to pack the electronics in tighter and tighter. Thus, in some cases, electrical connectors are difficult to reach and manipulate by hand. One commonly used type of connector is a registered jack connector or RJ connector (also referred to as a modular connector). Typically, as shown in FIG. 1A, an RJ connector plug/receptacle assembly 100 includes an RJ connector plug 102 and a receptacle or jack 104. The RJ connector plug has a resilient locking tab 106 extending from the body 108 of the plug at approximately a 15 degree angle. When the RJ connector plug 102 is mated with the connector receptacle 104, the locking tab 106 is designed to extend away from the body 108 of the plug and to come into locking engagement with an inner locking edge 110 of the connector receptacle: 104. During extraction or insertion of the RJ connector plug into the connector receptacle, the locking tab 106 may be deflected toward the body 108 of the plug, as shown in FIG. 1B. When space permits, this deflection of the locking tab is accomplished with a finger. When placed in tight, difficult to reach spaces, the interaction of the locking tab feature on the RJ connector plug with the connector receptacle makes extraction and insertion of these connectors difficult at best and sometimes adversely impacts the real-time servicing of on-line revenue generating systems.
For example, when extracting RJ connector plugs from their connector receptacles, technicians routinely use a flat blade screwdriver to depress the locking tab of the latching mechanism of the connector plug, then pull on the cable itself to extract the RJ connector plug. This leads to cable or electrical lead failure, intermittent electrical performance, broken locking tabs of the RJ connectors and many lost technician troubleshooting hours.
For RJ connector plug insertion, technicians use their hands for aligning the plug with the connector receptacle. This means pushing other cable assemblies out of the way and holding the cable of the RJ connector plug in order to guide and mate the connector plug with the connector receptacle.
Thus, a tool for effectively and safely assisting in the extraction and/or insertion of RJ connector plugs from their connector receptacles without damaging the connector, the locking tab, the cable, the conductive terminals or electrical leads is desired. In addition, a tool for assisting in the extraction and/or insertion of RJ connector plugs into their connector receptacles and which requires only one hand for performing the extraction and/or insertion is desired.